Not all the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic get sick from the virus or suffer financial losses. Some are getting hurt in ways that aren’t quite so obvious.
Jayce Bailey, Grant Gorrell and Dominic Signorelli arrived in Colorado in late June eager to play some baseball. All three Boise State Broncos had been part of the rebirth of college baseball in the sports crazy Idaho town three months earlier, sneaking in 14 games and going 9-5 (three of the losses were at powerhouse Texas and two of those were narrow defeats) before the Coronavirus shut everything down and cancelled the remainder of everyone’s baseball season.
“We were pretty good, too,” Gorrell smiled.
Baseball returning in Boise was kind of a historic deal. BSU was a member of the Northern Pacific Conference when the school axed the baseball program back in 1980. Then after almost four decades, the school admin took the plunge and brought baseball out of moth balls, much to the delight of the Bronco faithful, who filled up the stands to see the team sweep Northern Colorado in their first homestand in 40 years. The future looked bright for Broncos baseball.
Then the shutdown.
With their first college season wiped out, but with high hopes for the future, Bailey – an outfielder, and infielders Gorrell and Signorelli accepted invitations to play for the Greeley Grays summer collegiate team in Colorado, eager to get back on the diamond. During the team’s firsts few practices, some of their new teammates had teased them about the cool blue and orange BSU gear – equipment bags, baseball gloves and spikes included, that they’d brought with them. Boise had done it right. Now it was time to play baseball again.
Then on the morning of July 2nd, as they were getting ready to play their first baseball games in more than three months, each got an email no one ever wants to receive.
After less than one full season, Boise State was dropping baseball. Again.
The news blindsided everyone involved, including Head Coach Gary Van Tol, who had a new recruit on campus that very day. It was a gut punch.
The three Boise State players who’d arrived in Greeley less than a week earlier are rooming together for the summer season. Signorelli was the first to hear, and he woke up his teammates with the news.
“I woke up to a text message saying ‘Hey, is this real?’,” Signorelli said. “So I didn’t know what he was talking about. Then I checked our team group chat, and no one knew what was going on. Then I got a text saying check your email.”
“We got an email from our AD (Curt Apsey) telling us that baseball was going to be discontinued due to budgets,” Bailey added. “They followed up the email with a Zoom call with the whole compliance department telling us about the transfer portal and what we can and can’t do with the whole process going forward.”
“I’d been up for about 30 seconds when (Signorelli) told me to read this email from our AD,” Gorrell added. “Right then I said, ‘That’s not a good sign.’”
Even after completing the calls with the Boise State admin, the three players remained in a fog as they headed to the field for an early afternoon doubleheader that would open the Grays abbreviated season. The Grays dropped both games, their three standout players present in body only.
“It didn’t feel real at first, honestly,” Bailey noted. “It took an hour or two… I guess I was in disbelief at first.”
Aspey put out a statement to the media that read, “This is one of the hardest decisions athletic departments have to make, but it comes at a time when we are facing the most serious financial challenge we have ever seen.”
“Today’s decision came after an extensive review and in-depth analysis of the athletics department’s budgets and programs by several senior leaders,” said Boise State President Dr. Marlene Tromp in her press statement. “The university had already been working closely with athletics to create a sustainable budget. The pandemic has made a challenging financial situation unsustainable.”
Shortly after the announcement, numerous players and supporters of Boise State baseball began fund raising efforts to keep the program alive. Aspey was quick to throw water on the idea, calling it “unsustainable” for the long run for a program that had a first year budget of approximately $1.3 million. History is on his side in that regard. Similar efforts at other schools have rarely been successful past a year or possibly two.
Gorrell for one, is undeterred.
“I still think we got a shot,” he stated. “We have a lot of people committed right now to fund raising. There’s a lot of money in Boise. I’m not going to make any (transfer) moves yet. There’s only been one guy that’s left and committed to another school, so we’ve got 32 other guys that are sticking around and gonna fight it out.”
Gorrell was speaking not only for his teammates, but for the thousands of baseball fans that filled Hawks Field for the school’s re-entry into Division I baseball. Van Tol is said to be going full steam ahead to raise the necessary funding to keep the program alive.
“We’ve got some connections,” Gorrell noted, pointing at corporate sponsors like Albertsons, which has the naming rights for the Broncos football stadium. “I think they (the school) would miss out if they lose their baseball team.
“If it wasn’t for Gary (Van Tol) it would be different. But since we’ve got Gary, I know we’ve still got a shot.”
“I’m not going to give up on Boise State,” said Bailey, a junior. “I think our coach is going to do everything he can. He’s gung ho on not letting this thing go down.”
History isn’t on their side anymore. What was a wonderful story and a potential guide for other schools to follow is now another story with a sad ending. Then again, Boise State has built its brand as an underdog that doesn’t take no for an answer.
Listen to Mark Knudson on Monday’s at 12:30 with Brady Hull on AM 1310 KFKA and on Saturday mornings on “Klahr and Kompany” on AM 1600 ESPN Denver.
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